San Diego County, San Diego Rat Control Situation:
Hi David, Is a UV blacklight still useful, exterior-wise, if it rains after the rodents leave their urine stains? I am in the process of performing exterior maintenance to better exclude my roof rats. 1) I have a 25 year old cedar shake roof in San Diego California with openings under each shake along the rake edge of the roof at the gable ends of my house. There's no drip edge, i.e. under the shakes I have roofing paper (now somewhat curled) that runs more or less up to and rests right atop the fascia board. Because I have skip sheathing, and since the cross section of a shake is a wedge that is up to one inch at the upper, thick end, this appears to create many huge entry points along the rake edges even though the sheathing is rabbeted into the fascia board. As a result, I'm thinking of getting a UV blacklight to use outside the house to sleuth for urine stains along the upper edge of the gable end shakes and fascia boards. My question is, how easily does the winter rain wash away the urine, rendering this a pointless exercise? 2) I noticed a new product called "rat-out gel" and was thinking of applying it along the rake edges mentioned above. Or, maybe I should just buy many rolls of X-Clude and use that instead. Or maybe both. Any comment? Thanks very much for your website, Doug
My response: First off, I do not have experience using UV lights to detect rat urine. But I do suspect that rain will severely limit the effectiveness of this approach. I have never heard of Rat-Out Gel or XClude, but I typically stick to physical barriers rather than repellent type devices. If your roof makes this impossible, you might have a tough time keeping the rats out.
San Diego Rat Control Tip of The Week
Can A Rat Be A Good Pet?
Rats are naturally affectionate, inquisitive, intelligent, and playful. So if you know you can keep up with the responsibility of taking care of it, there is no harm in keeping a rat as a pet. Rats are very clean animals, which means you won't have to worry much about it dirtying your home.
Just like other pets, rats are very easy to train. This is due to their high level of intelligence and empathy. To do this, all you need is a dedicated trainer with a good portfolio on how to train rats. When you have that in place, you can easily call your pet rat and it will respond to you. There is even some well-trained rat that can fetch balls when you instruct them to do so.
The most attractive quality of rats is their compassion. When another rat is not in a good state or in distress, you will see other rats rally round the rat in distress and show compassion and empathy in their little way. This particular quality is only common with humans and other few animals.
Also, when rats get accustomed to their owner, they tend to create a long life bond. Due to their level of intelligence, pet rats recognize the sight and voice of their owners and will respond accordingly when they hear or see their owner.
The only sad thing about keeping rats as pets is that they are short-lived compared to other pets like dogs and cats. But you will enjoy the little time you get to spend with them.
If you wish to keep a rat and have a pet, you can go ahead to do that. Rats can make a good pet if you are ready to provide all the care they need.
